Deck 13: Our Last 10,000 Years: Agriculture, Population, and Biology

Question 1

The region that contains archaeological sites documenting the development of early farming villages in the Middle East is called

A)the Arable Terrace.
B)the Indus Valley.
C)the Fertile Crescent.
D)the French Connection.

Answer 1

the Fertile Crescent.

Question 2

Which of the following is the wild ancestor of modern domesticated maize?

A)corn
B)wheat
C)teosinte
D)rye

Answer 2

teosinte

Question 3

Cereal grains such as rice that make up a significant portion of human diet today are known as

A)good-for-you foods.
B)high-energy foods.
C)superfoods.
D)genetically modified foods.

Answer 3

superfoods.

Question 4

According to anthropologist Jeffrey McKee, Earth's biodiversity is decreasing due to

A)natural selection.
B)genetic drift.
C)mutation.
D)increasing human population numbers.

Question 5

Regarding the Neolithic epoch, which of the following is true?

A)It is believed to have occurred first in Europe.
B)It is characterized by small, settled villages where the domestication of plants and/or animals took place.
C)It occurred in one place initially, then spread everywhere else.
D)It first occurred approximately 25,000 yBP.

Question 6

Rice was first domesticated in ________ , about 8,000 yBP.

A)Africa
B)New Guinea
C)China
D)Japan

Question 7

Which of the following is true of human biological evolution?

A)With modern Homo sapiens' appearance in the late Pleistocene, human biological evolution basically stopped.
B)It has been a linear process taking only 2 million years.
C)Humans are still evolving today.
D)Human evolution can be stopped at any time using cultural means.

Question 8

Evidence from China indicates that rice and grapes were fermented for wine as early as ________ .

A)8,000 yBP
B)1.0 mya
C)6,000 yBP
D)10,000 yBP

Question 9

Until about ________ , humans acquired virtually all their food through foraging.

A)1.0 mya
B)10,000 yBP
C)100,000 yBP
D)200,000 yBP

Question 10

Improper alignment of the upper and lower dentition is called ________ .

A)hyperplasia
B)cribra orbitalia
C)malocclusion
D)Harris line

Question 11

In the late 1960s, who proposed that South African food-foraging people actually had more leisure time than early farmers?

A)Louis Leakey
B)Tim White
C)Dart and Broom
D)Lee and DeVore

Question 12

The idea that cranial shape can change within a human population as a result of dietary change is referred to as the

A)masticatory-functional hypothesis.
B)hard-object feeding hypothesis.
C)masseter-temporalis hypothesis.
D)morpho-cranial hypothesis.

Question 13

Domestication refers to

A)bringing a wild plant or animal into your home.
B)change over time.
C)random gene transfer between populations.
D)the process of converting wild animals or plants into forms that humans can use.

Question 14

More than 20% of all calories consumed by people today come from

A)millet.
B)rice.
C)sorghum.
D)corn.

Question 15

Greater reduction in jaw size relative to tooth size during the Holocene has led to greater incidence of

A)dental crowding.
B)cavities.
C)root canal procedures.
D)gum disease.

Question 16

The first animal to be domesticated during the Neolithic was the

A)dog.
B)cat.
C)cow.
D)goat.

Question 17

The first domesticated animal was the ________ .

A)cow
B)sheep
C)goat
D)dog

Question 18

All of the following regions provide archaeological evidence for local plant domestication except

A)eastern North America.
B)southwestern Asia.
C)China.
D)Australia.

Question 19

Archaeological evidence showing a shift from long and narrow skulls to short and wide skulls, as a result of a change in diet linked to domestication, has been found in

A)China.
B)Mexico.
C)France.
D)Nubia.

Question 20

Modern humans have existed for over 100,000 years, but only over the last ________ years has Earth's population grown three orders of magnitude, from a few million people to over six billion today.

A)20,000
B)1 million
C)10,000
D)2 million

Question 21

Diseases such as yaws, syphilis, and bejel are known as

A)periosteal reactions.
B)trepanematoses.
C)cribraorbitalia.
D)none of the above.

Question 22

The invasion of spongy bone into the eye sockets as a response to anemia is called

A)hyperosteitis.
B)trabeculitis.
C)orbital arthritis.
D)cribraorbitalia.

Question 23

The type of iron found in some foods that provides all the amino acids humans require in their diet is

A)heme iron.
B)nonheme iron.
C)flat iron.
D)raw iron.

Question 24

Osteoarthritis is a skeletal disorder most easily seen on

A)joint surfaces.
B)bone shafts.
C)the skull.
D)the ribs.

Question 25

Abnormal expansion of a bone's diameter as a result of infection is

A)osteoarthritis.
B)megaosteopathy.
C)periosteal reaction.
D)big-bone syndrome.

Question 26

Cavities in the teeth are caused by a process called

A)hypoplasia.
B)enamel defects.
C)dentin foramina.
D)dental caries.

Question 27

Which of the following is a New World domesticate?

A)wheat
B)rice
C)cotton
D)pigs

Question 28

Based on the archaeological record from various areas, what was the initial effect of agriculture on height?

A)Height decreased.
B)Height increased.
C)Height became more variable within the population.
D)Height stayed the same.

Question 29

Osteoarthritis is defined as

A)building up of bone tissue due to sports.
B)degenerative changes in bone tissue due to physical activity or mechanical stress.
C)loss of bone mass due to genetic factors.
D)none of the above.

Question 30

Dental caries increased in some areas where agriculture began, due to an increase in the consumption of

A)nuts.
B)starchy carbohydrates.
C)seeds.
D)animal protein.

Question 31

Which of the following is not associated with the initial transition from foraging to agriculture?

A)reduced height
B)increased dental hypoplasia
C)lower incidence of dental caries (cavities)
D)higher incidence of infection

Question 32

How many separate centers of domestication exist, according to archaeologists?

A)three
B)five
C)seven
D)eleven

Question 33

The theory that face size in human beings decreased due to the consumption of softer foods is known as

A)the masticatory-functional hypothesis.
B)the Patchy Foods hypothesis.
C)Darwin's Hunting hypothesis.
D)none of the above.

Question 34

The great human population increase of the Holocene was probably due to

A)a decrease in disease as a result of sedentism.
B)more effective medical practices.
C)decreased birth spacing.
D)a dramatic increase in nutritional quality as a result of agriculture.

Question 35

Which of the following is not an infectious disease?

A)AIDS
B)tuberculosis
C)Ebola
D)diabetes

Question 36

Hookworm infestation of the human intestine can lead to a form of

A)cancer.
B)anemia.
C)heart disease.
D)measles.

Question 37

As seen in the skeletal record, which of the following diseases likely affected humans as far back as the Holocene?

A)influenza
B)HIV
C)syphilis
D)tuberculosis

Question 38

Swollen and bowed shin bones (tibiae) and cranial cavitations are often caused by diseases called

A)treponematoses.
B)smallpox.
C)bubonic plague.
D)malaria.

Question 39

The last 10,000 years is referred to as the

A)Pleistocene epoch.
B)Holocene epoch.
C)Pliocene epoch.
D)Anthrocene epoch.

Question 40

All of the following are advantages of agriculture over foraging except

A)agriculture supports larger numbers of people.
B)agriculture results in a food surplus.
C)agriculture has led to increased diversity in food.
D)agriculture is a necessary prerequisite to civilization.

Question 41

The cross section of an adult femur reveals a bone that is longer/flattened in one direction, giving the cross section the appearance of an oval.This suggests

A)that the individual was likely very physically active.
B)that the individual was lethargic and largely sedentary.
C)that the individual had a nutritional deficiency as a child.
D)You cannot discern anything from the shape of bone.

Question 42

The Neolithic Demographic Transition

A)was a drop in the death rate.
B)was a shift from low birth rates to high birth rates.
C)brought about large population increases.
D)both b and c

Question 43

Çatalhöyük is an important Neolithic site located in

A)southwest Asia.
B)southern Africa.
C)central Mexico.
D)India.

Question 44

During your lab you are asked to identify the condition exhibited by a juvenile female skull, in addition to suggesting the likely cause of the condition.You observe porous bone in the eye orbits.You identify the condition as

A)porotic hyperostosis, resulting from iron-deficiency anemia.
B)periosteal reaction, resulting from changes in diet.
C)hypoplasias, resulting from changes in diet and parasitic infection.
D)cribraorbitalia, resulting from iron-deficiency anemia or parasitic infection.

Question 45

What evidence from the skeletons and teeth of early farmers do scientists use to document the negative consequences of a shift from food foraging to the domestication of food?

Question 46

The high incidence of dental defects in early humans is tied to which of the following?

A)decline in nutritional quality
B)increase in nutritional quality
C)increase in infectious disease
D)a and c only

Question 47

Describe some of the ways that modern humans' faces, jaws, and teeth changed after the shift to agriculture and consumption of softer foods.

Question 48

While the domestication of plants and animals certainly led to a more stable food supply in the Holocene, it also resulted in significant problems.Briefly describe some of these problems.

Question 49

Research conducted by Richard Lee found that hunter-gatherers showed great variation in workload and leisure time.Prior to this research, hunting and foraging was thought to be physically and temporally demanding.Lee's findings are

A)evidence of the importance of the scientific method.
B)evidence of the importance of hypothesis testing.
C)evidence of the usefulness of observations and hypothesis generation.
D)all of the above.

Question 50

What main change in subsistence defines the Neolithic period? Name three geographic regions where Neolithic lifeways appeared independently.

Question 51

One of the most important technological innovations that appeared at about the same time as agriculture was

A)writing systems.
B)the controlled use of fire.
C)metal tools.
D)ceramics.

Question 52

Based on archaeological and genetic studies of modern people, by what mechanism did wheat spread from the Levant into Europe?